Genroku
Genroku was a Japanese era name after Jōkyō and before Hōei. The Genroku period spanned the years from September 1688 to March 1704. The reigning emperor was Emperor Higashiyama.
The period was known for its peace and prosperity, as the previous hundred years of peace and seclusion in Japan had created relative economic stability. The arts and architecture flourished. There were unanticipated consequences when the shogunate debased the quality of coins as a strategy for financing the appearance of continuing Genroku affluence. This strategic miscalculation caused abrupt inflation. Then, in an effort to solve the ensuing crisis, the introduced what were called the Kyōhō Reforms.
Change of era
The first year of the Genroku period was 1688. The new era name was created to mark the beginning of the reign of Higashiyama. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in Jōkyō 5, on the 30th day of the 9th month.A sense of optimism is suggested in the era name choice of Genroku.
Events of the Genroku era
- 1688 : Ihara Saikaku publishes Japan's Eternal Treasury.
- 1688 : Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu assumes the office of
- 1688 : The Tokugawa shogunate revised the code of conduct for funerals, which incorporated a code of conduct for mourning as well.
- 1689 : Foreign settlements in Nagasaki become possible.
- September 16, 1689 : German physician Engelbert Kaempfer arrives at Dejima.
- 1690 : The Abandoned Child Ban was officially proclaimed.
- 1692 : Building of temples in Edo banned.
- 1693 : Arai Hakuseki becomes tutor to the of Kōfu-, the future Tokugawa Ienobu.
- 1693 : The code of conduct for funerals is revised again.
- 1695 : Land survey performed of territory under the direct control of the in Kantō.
- 1695 : Minting begun of Genroku coinage. The shogunate placed the Japanese character on the obverse of copper coins, the same character used today in China for the. There is no connection between those uses, however.
- 1695 : First kennel is established for stray dogs in Edo. In this context, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi comes to be nicknamed "the Dog ".
- 1697 : The fourth official map of Japan was made in this year, but it was considered to be inferior to the previous one—which had been ordered in Shōhō 1 and completed in Kan'ei 16. This map was corrected in Kyōhō 4 by the mathematician Tatebe Katahiro, using high mountain peaks as points of reference, and was drawn to a scale of 1:21,600.
- 1697 : Great fire in Edo.
- 1698 : Another great fire in Edo. A new hall is constructed inside the enclosure of the Edo temple of Kan'ei-ji.
- 1700 : Exchange rate of silver coins established.
- 1703 : Akō Domain incident involving the 47.
- 1703 : Ōishi Yoshio commits ritual suicide.
- 1703 : First performance of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's play The Love Suicides at Sonezaki.
- December 31, 1703 : The Great Genroku earthquake shook Edo and parts of the shogun's castle collapsed. The following day, a vast fire spread throughout the city. Parts of Honshū's coast were battered by tsunami, and up to 200,000 people were either killed or injured.
Prominent figures of the Genroku era
- Chikamatsu Monzaemon— playwright
- Ichikawa Danjūrō I, Sakata Tōjūrō I, Yoshizawa Ayame I—kabuki actors
- Ihara Saikaku—novelist
- Arai Hakuseki—Confucian scholar and shogunal advisor
- The Forty-seven
- Ogata Kōrin and Ogata Kenzan—Rinpa school artists
- Torii Kiyonobu, Hishikawa Moronobu, Miyagawa Chōshun—ukiyo-e artists
- Matsuo Bashō—Haiku poet